Two of the lady pastors of JLYCC Hong Kong (Jesus Loves You City Church) came to meet me. The one was Pastor Zoe Neeb. (My secretary in Pretoria was Wilna Neeb. It is apparently a very common surname in the Philippines). It is easy to remember her name as our youngest grand daughter is called Zoe. It means ‘life’.
Pastor Rey de Benito and his wife Joy started over 50 churches around the world with Philippine migrant workers. There is not enough work for everyone in the Philippines so they send their workers out. This is a blessing in disguise for church planting! Pastor Rey and Joy are hard workers with a global vision and they have a heart for all their pastors around the world. Many of the pastors are women. Youghi Cho from Seoul, South Korea also found out how to use women in ministry because in Christ there is no male or female, Jew or Greek, but they are all one in Christ.
I had a wonderful revelation en route to Hong Kong in the plane about being a true Hebrew that I will share later on in a sermon. It is still in the cooking pot within me at the moment!
From Hong Kong I will go to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia to hold a seminar for pastoral leadership in the JLYCC of KK. Pastor Rey and his secretary Jeanette helped to arrange these meetings.
I have been to both HK and KK before but never ministered here.
Long ago my family and I were in HK and attended an all women church all clad in white. They sent out ‘Mules for Christ’ or young people willing to risk their lives to carry Bibles into China. Although HK is part of China and no longer part of the British Commonwealth they have their own rule. China wants to control it as well and there have been many protests against China rule by the youth of HK. At the moment one can freely preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in HK.
There were many churches renting halls in the same building where we met on Sunday. There is a great old Methodist Church Building in the style of England churches right in the middle of the city.
The church in HK has mostly also women members. Some of the husbands did not attend today. I think they stayed at home to watch the most advertised and greatest money spinning boxing match between Mayweather and Paquiao this morning!
I painted 8 watercolors here and took them to church. Apostle Aje gave me a box of books, DVD’s, CD’s and Miracle Bible College courses including a manual on how to start a satellite MBC. The Pastors were excited at the prospect of using our material.
‘This is what we need!’ they said excitedly.
Instead of trying to sell the material I told them they could simply give an offering. They took all the material I brought to church including the watercolor paintings and gave me a love offering. The list of courses included Apostle Leigh & Lynette’s Dance manual and Prophetess Nola’s Submission course as well as Apostle Aje and Teacher Chantal’s music CD and songs sheets of all their music.
Most of the people are domestic workers in Hong Kong. Some clean the home; some cook and some do the washing and ironing. Pastor Zoe is also a chauffeur for the family she serves.
‘It is a good opportunity to witness to the people where you work.’
In my sermon I shared how we shine as lights without any effort so people can see Christ in us. I referred to the text in Acts 4:13 where they took notice of Peter and John that they were unlearned men, but that they had been with Jesus. When Peter was next to the fire while Jesus was being question on the night before His crucifixion, they recognized him as one of Jesus’ disciples without him trying to preach to them. They said, ‘you sound like Him!’ A shining light does not make an effort to shine because it is a shining light! It simply functions the way it was designed. We simply live our lives plugged in to God and we shine like lights in the world. This greatly encouraged them.
I shared on the uniqueness of Jesus’ ministry and looked at the distinctions between His ministry and that of the Pharisees. He knew His source and authority – they did not. He made definite demands but also definite offers to people. For instance He said to the fishermen, ‘Follow Me and I will make you…fishers of men!’ He spoke to them on their level. He made up His disciples out of a motley crew of men: rebels, a tax collector, fishermen and men who wanted to overthrow the Roman government!
I related some adventures I had as a missionary to illustrate some of the points in the sermon and acted out some scenes.
Of course I ministered in song as well as Apostle Aje once said: ‘as worship leaders we as musicians have a ‘gig’ every Sunday!’
The Holy Spirit led me to pray for them and to lay my hands on a few people and bless them. Then I prophesied to just one young lady. Afterwards I found out that it was her first time in church and she was looking for a church. My word to her gave her assurance that she found her spiritual home!
The church in HK was founded in ’89 if I have it correctly. It really takes time to build a church! There are man-made and business methods to make a church grow in numbers, but in our experience we found if Christ build a church it takes time, because people have to grow because Christ has to be formed in them.
It is very expensive in HK. The HK dollar is about 7 to one $1 US. A proper meal costs about $120 HK and 4 nights in a reasonable hotel about $4 000 HK. A taxi from the airport asks $350 HK. Without the help and support of friends in the ministry it will be impossible to reach the world with our message of Good News and to build up churches wherever we go. I thank God upon my knees for everyone that believes in our mission to reach the entire world for Christ’s sake and to spread our material.
The Pastors all invited me back and offered to arrange other meetings for me in HK. It is another door opening! Praise the Lord!
Apostle Andre Pelser
